Black Urine Causes that are Very Dangerous

Very Dangerous Food Causes

There are not many foods causing black urine that would be considered to be very dangerous unless you were to ingest known poisons and call them foods, or unless you were to consume such vast quantities of these foods as to cause harm to your health. If that’s the case, black urine is probably not your primary concern.

Very Dangerous Medicinal Causes

Most any medicine can be considered very dangerous if you overdose. So, if you refer to the Possibly Dangerous Causes page and review the medicines listed there, you’ll find ones that would be considered very dangerous if you failed to use judgement and overindulged.

Very Dangerous Health Causes

Blackwater Fever - Blackwater Fever is a complication that can come about from treating Malaria. It will cause black urine (or dark red urine). Why does it turn your urine black? Blackwater fever can come about when when your blood cells are being destroyed at a rapid pace, and hemoglobins, which are usually inside the blood cells, are being released directly into your bloodstream and then into your urine. What destroys your blood cells like that? A nasty virus known as Plasmodium Falciparum enters the blood cells and literally makes the burst. When there are hemoglobins in your urine, it is called Hemoglobinuria. The hemoglobins in your urine give it that black color. If this all sounds bad for your health, that’s because it is bad. It can lead to kidney failure and death if not treated. If you have Blackwater Fever, it would also likely be accompanied by other symptoms, such as jaundice, fever and chills, vomiting, anemia, and, well… eventually death.

It’s thought that Blackwater Fever is a possible complication as your body’s immune system reacts to the use of quinine to treat the malaria. The good news is, it’s not that common anymore. Malaria can now be treated with other antimalarial drugs that do not use quinine. Chloroquine was introduced in the 1950’s to replace quinine, and cases of Blackwater Fever all but disappeared. That’s good! In some more recent cases of Malaria, however, the virus has become resistant to chloroquine[1]. That’s bad. Today a drug called artesunate is used and is much more effective than quinine, and it also has the added benefit of not causing Blackwater Fever. That’s good… again.

Blackwater fever can still occur when a quinine treatment is used. When is that likely to happen? Perhaps if you’re out in some backwater hole, where they don’t have access to any medication developed since 1960, and you’re treated with a quinine. Unfortunately, money talks, and sometimes outdated medicines are used because they are cheap.

How do you treat Blackwater fever? It would usually require a full blood transfusion and alternative antimalarial drugs.

So, does black urine signify the end of the world? If you’ve been reading, and not just skipping to the end, then you would know it completely depends on the cause of the black urine. Most food causes are harmless. Medicinal and chemical causes can go either way, but you can usually cut out the medicine or prevent contact with the chemical in question. When it’s health related, you should be seeing a doctor, so you can rule out worst case scenarios, and receive a prescribed plan of action.